our lost kingdoms
by Katako-Chan
Summary: This is the dead land/This is cactus land/Here the stone images/Are raised, here they receive... Companion to the only things that echo. Peter-centric. Rated for language.


**Author's Note: **If you haven't noticed already, this is the companion piece to the only things that echo. Just a note, most of the dialogue is lifted directly from said fic.

**Warning: **This stoy contains very slight incest (that could, in fact, be interpreted as a close sibling relationship). Incest, generally, is not my thing, and I still avoid it. However, it worked with the flow of this story, and so I went with it. I am sorry if this offends you.

**Disclaimer: **The Chronicles of Narnia is property of C.S. Lewis, Walden Media, etc. Title, summary, and opening quote from T.S. Eliot's Hollow Men.

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**our lost kingdoms**

by Katako-Chan

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_this valley of dying stars_

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A door slams and a scream rings through the house.

Peter skips the last two steps up the stairs and looks between Lucy and the closed door beside her. Immediately, he walks over to the door and begins knocking on it. "Su? Susan! Susan, I know you're in there."

When there is no answer, he turns back to the younger of his two sisters, her body pressed up against the wall. "What happened?"

Lucy lifts her chin defiantly and doesn't meet his eyes. "You'd take Susan's side."

"Stop being childish, Lucy." Peter rolls his eyes. There are some days where he wonders how he's even lived this long with such a family. "Tell me what happened."

She remains tightlipped and Peter's frustration mounts. "Lucy," he warns.

"I'm not telling you. And Edmund, we know you're listening."

Out of the corner of his eye, Peter can see Edmund poke his head out of their bedroom. "So you caught me, Lu."

"Alright, Lu, Ed's here to side with you," Peter says, knowing that the only way he'll get an explanation is if he plays along with Lucy's game. "Now tell me."

Lucy bites her lip and slowly removes herself from the wall. She is still tense, Peter notes, and he's not surprised. They're all still like this, even Susan.

"Come on, Lu," Edmund encourages.

Peter sees Lucy's eyes dart between Edmund and him. "Susan," she says, glaring at the door, "was being Susan."

"And?" Peter asks, though he knows where this is headed by now. "That never bothered you in Narnia."

Edmund gives him a reproachful look. They both know that he's set Lucy off.

"That's exactly it!" Lucy screams, pointing wildly at him. "Because this is England. It isn't Narnia anymore."

"We're all aware of that, Lu," Edmund says.

"Yes, I know," she says, turning on Edmund. "This isn't Narnia, and it is England, but just because we're stuck in soddy old England doesn't mean we've got to become soddy old hags!"

"I'm going to assume you're referring to Su," Edmund says, pointing at the closed door, and Peter frowns at this.

"Who else could it be? I don't give a damn if she's angry and she hates it, because...Aslan, we all hate it here, even if I can't even remember half of the things we've gone through, I hate it here." Tears are running down her face now and she looks half mad. "But now she has to go and pretend that Aslan doesn't even exist, after everything...after the Stone Table, after the Trees, after the World's End-."

She's baiting me, Peter thinks. She should know better, but Lion, it's working. "Lucy," he growls, "We weren't there for that."

"But you don't see, do you?" she wails, hysterical and furious all at once. "She's betrayed us. She was there, we all were, and yet she still's going around pretending she's nothing more than Susan Pevensie, pretty girl with some nice lipstick." She collapses onto the floor into a sad heap of itchy wool.

Peter is silent. He understands Lucy, understands her rage and hurt, and from where Edmund kneels beside their younger sister, he knows that Ed understands as well. But this isn't the first time the two of them have listened as Lucy ranted and raved. And this won't be the last.

"Fuck," he whispers, because when did his family fall apart this much? After Ed and Lu went to Narnia their last time with Eustace, his brain responds automatically, but he knows that it started long before then, before Caspian, when Aslan (and there are some days, most days now, when he really hates that Lion) threw them out of their own country, their Narnia.

Oh, Susan, he thinks, because now he really remembers how it hurt. He'd been trying to bury the feeling: Aslan stretching and twisting and straining his tie with Narnia and the unending sorrow feeding through that connection, because, despite being worlds apart, he knows that Narnia needs, wants, her High King.

"Lu," Peter says. She looks up reluctantly, tears still running down her cheeks. "Susan hasn't forgotten, not completely, she-."

Edmund sees where he's going with his explanation and picks it up, and for that, Peter is grateful. He walks over to the door as Edmund talks quietly with Lucy and knocks.

"Susan? Su, it's me, let me in." He's prepared for a long wait.

From inside the room, he can hear shuffling around. The door opens, and Peter steps in, closing the door behind him.

"Oh, Su," he whispers, pulling her close to him. She still shakes with erratic sobs. He keeps one hand at her waist and carefully wipes the tears off her face with the other, kissing each spot afterwards.

Somewhere between then, they end up on the bed, Peter still holding Susan. The tears are long gone by now, and Peter can only hear the echo of Lucy's second explosion, slowly fading, and so he holds Susan, just holds her and presses a kiss into her hair.

Peter knows that, soon, they will have to face a world that is suffering and hurt and pain and isn't Narnia. But right now is a time for them and their loss.

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End file.
